BEAVER CREEK, Colorado, 8 December 2003 — Hermann Maier produced a breathtaking run to win a World Cup downhill race on Saturday, claiming his second victory in a week and top spot in the overall standings.
Looking like the Maier who had dominated the World Cup before his near fatal motorcycle accident two years ago, the 30-year-old attacked a treacherous Birds of Prey course from top to bottom picking up time at every interval to leave his rivals floundering in his wake.
“I did not imagine that it was possible to have such good results so fast,” said Maier, after recording his first downhill win since March 2001 in Are.
“Obviously this is absolutely incredible to win a downhill...especially here.”
The burly Austrian, who was to celebrate his birthday the next day, gave himself an early present as he sped across the finish line in a time of one minute 39.76 seconds, almost a full second clear of his nearest rival compatriot Hans Knauss with 1:40.71 to register his 44th World Cup win.
Andreas Schifferer completed an Austrian sweep of the podium taking third in 1:40.95 ahead of American Daron Rahlves, who won the first of back-to-back downhills here on Friday.
With the World Cup set to shift from North America back to Europe next week, the mighty Austrians took the opportunity to flex their downhill muscles placing seven skiers in the top nine. Still not fully recovered from the accident that left his leg shattered and career in doubt, Maier had labeled this campaign his comeback season.
But with two emphatic victories in his last three races the former bricklayer from Flachau must now consider his comeback complete.
Suddenly the three-time overall World Cup champion finds himself perched in a familiar place, back atop the rankings. And with eight career victories on this mountain the double Olympic champion can expect to add to his lead after super-G.
“I don’t want to look too far into the future,” said Maier, the winner of the season’s first super-G in Lake Louis last Sunday. “This doesn’t mean I am going to win all the downhills.
“I just want to enjoy this and think about tomorrow’s super-G.”
American Bode Miller, widely tipped as the favorite to capture the coveted overall crown after winning the season’s first two events, had another frustrating outing, skidding off course and failing to register a result for the second consecutive day.
Having also crashed out spectacularly on Friday, Miller has seen his title bid stall, picking up just 13 points in the last five races.
The race got off to a scary start when Slovenia’s Gregor Sparovec, the first racer onto the course, lost control coming off a jump midway through his run and crashed spectacularly, ripping through 30 meters of safety netting before finally coming to a stop. After being examined by course workers Sparovec skied into the finish area unharmed.
Montillet Clinches Downhill Double
In Lake Louise, Alberta, Carole Montillet, the new queen of Lake Louise, crossed the finish line in one minute 24.18 seconds on Saturday to win her second World Cup downhill in successive days.
The 30-year-old Frenchwoman’s raw power helped her overtake Michaela Dorfmeister, the overall World Cup winner in 2002, by 0.12 of a second. Dorfmeister’s fellow Austrian Renate Goetschl, second overall last year, was third in 1:24.41.
It was the fifth consecutive race in which Montillet had finished on the podium at this Canadian resort, and her third downhill victory in four races here. The only other major downhill she has won was at last year’s Olympics in Salt Lake City.
“I guess it’s the snow in North America. The snow is very hard,” she told reporters.
“It’s different from France and Europe. I like the icier conditions,” said Montillet. “I’m happy, happy, happy.”
Volatile Rocky Mountain weather fronts blew two snowstorms through the region, changing the scene from total white-out to a sky blue heaven in a matter of minutes.
Conditions forced a delay of more than two hours before race organizers were able to begin the competition from a lower start hut.
